A WILDERNESS LABORATORY 153 



could work as well as in the north, and where 

 a morning's tramp usually furnished material 

 sufficient for a week of research. We came to 

 know it as the house of a thousand noises. The 

 partitions, like those of all tropical houses, ex- 

 tended only part way to the ceiling, so, as some 

 one has said, one enjoyed about the privacy of a 

 goldfish. It would have been a terrible place 

 for a victim of insomnia ; but when we were kept 

 awake by noises it was because we were inter- 

 ested in them. After a day's hard work in the 

 jungle, it must indeed be a bad conscience or a 

 serious physical ailment which keeps one awake 

 a minute after one rolls up in his blanket. 

 Through all the months of varying tropical sea- 

 sons we slept as soundly as we should at home. 

 I can do with five or six hours' sleep the year 

 round, and I begrudged even this in the tropical 

 wonderland, where my utmost efforts seemed 

 to result in such slight inroads into our tre- 

 mendous zoological ignorance. At night I spent 

 many wonderful hours, leaning first out of one, 

 then out of another window, or occasionally 

 going down the outside lattice stairway and 

 strolling about the compound. 



No two nights were alike, although almost 



